What is your opinion about the aliens in Trek who look too much like humans. In some episodes of all five shows we see species who are almost identical to humans or have some minor physiological differences (such as a slightly different nose or a forehead).
I think it is highly unlikely for species from planets with completely different environmental conditions, chemical balance and gravity to look so identical to humans.
Do you feel that the producers sometimes underestimate the intelligence of their viewers by icluding such alien races? Or are you OK with that concept?
The number of aliens who look 99% human is a bit silly, yes. But it's one of the TV conventions that you have to put up with, because they make the show stories possible in the first place. Like the Universal Translator - it is completely unbelievable, but it's preferable to the assumption that everyone in the universe speaks English. They can't have 70% of the actors in heavy makeup, for budgetary reasons. And in TOS, it was better they did not have actors in heavy makeup or costumes too often, because it was too unconvincing - just look at Gorn or Horta, it's painfully obvious that it's a guy in a suit, and Horta looks like a rag. They came up with clever ways to present non-corporeal aliens such as Medusans or Tholians, but it couldn't be done in every episode, because there couldn't be regular interaction between such aliens and the main characters. Today, they can use CGI, but it would be far too expensive for a TV show to use it in almost every episode.
There is another reason for the lack of physical differences, which does seem to show that the producers lack imagination or underestimate the audience. A well known example is why Bajorans look the way they look - when Michelle Forbes was cast as Ro, the first Bajoran character in Trek, the producers told Michael Westmore: "We've hired a pretty girl, and we want you to
keep her pretty." Which seemed to translate to, don't go overboard with the makeup, just add a minor difference. I guess they tended to believe that there's no way that viewers could find heavy-makeup aliens attractive - even though that has turned out to be wrong in a few examples.
Cultural similarities tend to annoy me more. Stuff like the reptilian aliens in "Distant Origin" jovially talking to each other about the younger one wanting to marry his superior's daughter and if there is a problem with him being from a lower class, or discussing whether a female in charge of Voyager means that humans live in matriarchy.
